Past to Present
by AzzazzinPistachio
Summary: What would happen if Mel knew a little more about her daughter's adventures than she lets on? Basically this story is a theory based remake of Coraline. I use as many of the characters as I can, so hopefully this will be okay :)
1. Chapter 1

Past to Present

A Coraline Fan-Fiction

Introduction:

Okay, so I am OBSESSED with the movie "Coraline". After watching it over a dozen times on Netflix this past month, I noticed some things about the movie. A lot of it actually surrounds Mel, Coraline's real mother. Now, by any means I am not normally one to be a theorist but there are a few things that I noticed, and have been studying closely.

How does she know what key opens the little door?

Why would she think Coraline would feel safer with the door locked again when it is clearly bricked up?

Why she was not surprised that the doll Wybie gave Coraline was identical to her?

How come she got so angry when Coraline discussed the other world?

My theory is that Mel has been to the other world when she was little, and the memories were repressed or passed off as dreams and as soon as Coraline began to describe it, it triggered her memories and escape from the Beldam. Which in turn makes her begin to become protective over Coraline (locking the door, trying to get her to disregard the other world etc.). This could also explain why the beldam was so obsessed with Coraline, and why her power was as low as it is.

Theoretically looking at the ghost children you could see that they clearly came from different time periods with Mrs. Lovatt's sister being the most recent. The house is 150+ years old. So this means the girl with the hat would have been the first victim, her clothing placing her most likely in the 1800's. The little boy would have been in the early 1900's and I am going to say Mrs. Lovatt's sister fell victim somewhere in the 40's-50's. This means that the Beldam has gone from the 50's to the 2000's without another soul to bring up her power.

Now the one inconsistency would be that the Beldam is seen in the beginning redoing the doll that looks like Mrs. Lovat's sister, but at the end we see a double sided doll of Mel and Charlie. This makes me wonder if the Beldam didn't have enough power through the doll to entrap Mel, thus having to revert the doll back so that Mrs. Lovatt didn't suspect a thing. I noticed as well that "Mini-Coraline" is stuffed with what looks like sand, whereas the doll before had a cotton filling. Could this be out of disdain for Mel (using the sand in a sandman like power to make sure that Coraline sleeps?) Or could this be a trap to keep both Mel and Coraline.

Near the end you can see that her power is depleting as she can no longer help "other father" keep up his appearance, and the world becomes scary and broken, even her own façade she can't keep up. So could it be said that her ultimate goal would be to devour the lives of both Coraline and Mel to revamp herself for the decades to come and then use Charlie's soul to revamp other father?

So without further delay, this is my take on Coraline, using my theory. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: Arrival

It was a gloomy day as the Jones family made their way up the steep hill to "The Pink Palace", a large old house, separated into apartment owned by Mrs. Lovatt. Their car spluttered and squeaked since it was weighed down by them and their belongings (along with a little bit of damage from Mel unintentionally hitting a truck). Coraline sat in the back seat, her face reading both boredom and curiosity.

Mel couldn't help but feel a shiver down her spine. Something about this place made her feel déjà vu. She felt drawn to this place, yet deep down she also felt the urge to run away. She shivered again as she delved deeper into thought.

"Are you cold darling?" Charlie, her husband looked at her with concern.

Mel just shook her head, attributing the dampness to her shivers. Her husband nodded and looked out the window. Coraline caught her mother's gaze in the mirror, she could tell her mother was deep in thought and decided not to pry.

Finally they arrived at the top of the hill. Immediately Coraline jumped out of the car, running off to explore. The ad had mentioned a well on the property, and Mel knew Coraline was eager to check it out. Charlie climbed out of the car next. He stretched and grimaced a couple times since he was stiff from the car ride. He looked around with a smile. He saw the definite gardening potential here, if he could get Mel involved that is.

Mel stayed in the car for a little longer. She stared up at the house deep in thought. Why did she feel this ominous familiarity? She was quickly brought out of her trance by Charlie tapping on the window, beckoning her inside to begin helping (as much as she could with a neck injury) figuring out where they wanted everything to go.

Coraline wandered around outside with a dowsing rod. Her and her friends always had fun looking for creeks, wells and rivers back in Michigan. She teared up at the thought of her friends, she missed them so much. She continued to wander, not really caring about the cold wind or the mud on her boots until she was startled by a rustling sound from behind a rock. Coraline picked up a pebble and threw it at the source of the sound only to be started by an emaciated and quite frankly, creepy cat.

Then she encountered Wybie. He had scared the living daylights out of her by honking an air horn when he charged down the hill on his bike. It took everything for her not to throw a rock at him. She was going to, but then he told her that his grandmother owned their apartment building, so she thought it best not to. Wybie couldn't stay long unfortunately as his grandmother began to call out for him to come home, but not before he pointed out that Coraline's dowsing rod was poison oak.

Coraline was about to explore further when she felt raindrops hit her face. Knowing that her mother had absolutely no tolerance for mud or mess, she quickly began to head to her apartment, where her parents actually set up quite quickly. When she walked inside Mel was sitting on her laptop, editing her father's newest article in his garden catalogue. She tried to tell her about the cat, the well, Wybie, and even the poison oak, but her mother was too busy. So was her father.

"Coraline! Some boy brought something for you!" Shouted Mel from downstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: What's this?

Coraline ran downstairs as she heard her mother's voice beckoning her down the stairs.

"Some boy? What boy? Better not be that… Wybie." She thought to herself with a quite dramatic roll of her eyes.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs she hopped off the last step, the floor groaning in protest causing her to cringe, this is why she hated old houses. She wanted to jump and explore all the nooks and crannies, but had an underlying fear that she would fall through the floor. Coraline shook her head to clear her mind once she realized she'd been dawdling. Just as she figured Mel was awaiting her with one hand on her hip and the other was outstretched towards Coraline, holding an oddly shape packaged wrapped in newspaper. Her facial expression was one of sheer annoyance and frustration.

"Coraline. I am trying to edit this catalogue. Some boy brought this… thing for you and interrupted my work!" She snarled in Coraline's direction.

Coraline hesitantly reached out and took the package from her mother. Mel's hand that had been holding the package returned to her hip and she let out an irritated sigh.

"Well? Are you going to open it or what?"

Coraline gave her mother a small roll of her eyes which Mel saw, but given the current situation, she chose to ignore. Mel watched closely as Coraline's small fingers hesitantly unwrapped the package, half nervous that it was going to be some sort of dead rat. Mel felt the chill return up her spine like it had when they first arrived. Why did it feel like something bad was going to happen? She was shaken out of her thoughts as Coraline let out a small squeak of surprise and held in her hand a doll that looked exactly like her.

"This is almost as weird as the little door mom! Look it has button eyes too!" Coraline shrieked happily.

Mel rolled her eyes. Her daughter had an imagination that's for sure. The mention of the cold black buttons brought her back to her almost trance like lost in thought state. Again she was brought out of it when Coraline let out a sassy and quite annoyed snort.

"Heh, I am WAY too old for dolls." Coraline sneered as she walked away with the doll tucked under her arm.

Mel shook her head. Coraline was turning out to be so similar to her in personality, especially at this age. She sighed softly, her mind drifting back to when she was young and she had spunk just like her daughter… Not blue haired spunk mind you, but she loved adventure. Briefly she seemed to get a flashback of holding a doll similar to the one that Coraline just received.

"Oh Mel, these pain pills are making you lose it girl. I think it is time for a break." She laughed to herself nervously, placing her hand to her neck brace to adjust it before going to sit in the recliner.

Soon she found herself drifting off to sleep rather quickly. Her dreams were filled with dolls, cats and oddly enough… Mud.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Shopping Trip

"Mel.. Did you finish editing my pages?" Charlie asked as he walked into the living room.

Mel awoke with a start. She had been trapped in her dream. Oddly enough the last thing she remembered in her dream was Coraline's new doll staring at her. The button eyes seeming to burn into her as if she were being watched.

"What? Oh yeah. They're printed and in the folder." Mel snapped, not enjoying being woken up in that manner.

Charlie backed away from her.

"I'll go get ready and we can get going to submit the catalogue. Maybe bring Coraline along to get some uniforms for her new school?"

Mel nodded and sat up slowly, stopping Charlie from leaving the room so that he could help her put her neck brace back on. Sure she could have done it herself but when Charlie or Coraline did it they managed to achieve the tightness easier that was needed to support her neck. Plus she always got her hair caught in it which was annoying. After adjusting the neck brace one final time she walked over to the bottom of the stairs to call up to Coraline.

"Coraline! Let's go! We're going to get you some uniforms!"

Mel heard a groan come from upstairs followed by frustrated stomping down the stairs. Coraline appeared with an unamused look on her face and her doll tucked under her arm. The ice cold stare of the black button eyes gave Mel the creeps.

"Mom I don't want to wear stupid uniforms. I want to explore."

Mel rolled her eyes.

"We are getting you the uniforms Coraline Jones… No ifs ands or buts about it. How about we live the doll at home?"

Coraline rolled her eyes and stomped her foot rather dramatically.

"If you are forcing me outside, mini-me is coming too."

Mel wasn't about to argue with her. She just turned on her heel to grab the keys and go start the car. Charlie nudged Coraline out the door and locked it behind them. After climbing in the car Coraline began to spout off about a parallel world where her "other mother" who looked identical to Mel cooked chicken and wanted to play in the mud. It wasn't until she mentioned buttons for eyes that Mel felt that déjà vu feeling again.

"Coraline you just dreamt you ate all the chicken."

Coraline just rolled her eyes and held her doll up so it could look out the window. Mel pulled into the parking lot of their publisher and sent Charlie to go do the dirty work. He didn't want to go because he was nervous and thought Mel would be better at it but she just gave him one of her famous looks and he quickly got out of the car to go inside.

Coraline and Mel were completely silent on the way to the clothing store. Mel had tried to talk to her on and off, but Coraline just brushed her off and talked to the doll instead. When they pulled into the parking lot, Coraline immediately ran inside and headed to the back where the gloves were. Mel rolled her eyes and went inside to the section with children's school uniforms. She gave a content sigh as she saw there was a good selection and low and behold they were on sale. Coraline's size was relatively easy to find and Mel quickly began picking out various dresses, pants, and shirts. Coraline rolled passed her standing on a stool, showing off a pair of really expensive gloves.

"Put them back right now!" Mel glared at Coraline.

After a short argument over the gloves and Mel telling Coraline that if she didn't like her decision her "other mother" could buy her clothing the pair checked out and left. Mel checked her cellphone to see if her husband was ready to be picked up, but there were no missed calls so she decided to head home to make Coraline some lunch.

When they got home however they realized that there was nothing to eat. Coraline was still very angry about their argument and gave major attitude to Mel about the gloves and Mel offering to get her something special for lunch. Coraline stormed away in a huff, the doll secured in her grasp. Mel looking hurt, picked up the keys and left for the grocery store.


End file.
